1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for charging pelletized material to be sintered into a sintering machine, and more particularly to an apparatus for feeding material from a conveyer to a bed of the sintering machine and controlling a distribution of particle sizes of the material in the direction of a height of material layers formed on the bed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an ordinary sintering machine, material to be sintered has been hitherto stored in a surge hopper, cut off by a roll feeder positioned in the lower side of said surge hopper and fed to a pallet travelling at a predetermined speed by means of a deflector plate. The material is stacked up in layers to a predetermined height on the pallet by means of said deflector plate and travels together with the pallet. Carbonaceous material contained in the material is ignited by an ignition furnace from the upper side thereof. Sintering of the material layers proceeds from an upper portion of the material layers to a lower portion thereof by the use of an exhaust duct positioned on the lower side of the pallet and an exhauster connected to the exhaust duct.
However, a new method for sintering green pellets wherein said green pellets of 8 mm in particle size is prepared by pelletizing powdery material to be sintered and fed to a sintering machine, has developed highly. As a result, gas permeability of sintering bed, reducibility of sintered product and the yield thereof are increased and sintering of the material has become more effective. In this case, the material pelletized with much effort has a possibility of being crushed in a surge hopper or during cutting of the material from a roll feeder. Moreover, since material of comparatively large particle size out of the material which has been put on a pallet is liable to roll over the pallet and material of small particle size is difficult to roll, a distribution of particle sizes of the material varies in the upward and downward directions of material layers stacked up on the pallet. In the case that differences in the distribution of particle sizes are large, the material is not sintered uniformly in the upward and downward directions and nonuniformity of quality of sintered product can take place.